So..tell me about Eberron

[FalcWP]

We're going around in circles now. I've made it clear that I see Eberron encouraging suprahuman antics which are rare in other settings. I've also made it clear that I see Eberron as embracing and pushing the "power creep" of 3E. So, my dislikes are about the system and the way Eberron relates to it.

As for the Star-Trek D&D adventuring party, I am firmly of the opinion that exotic races and classes are a ready-made substitute for player creativity - in an Eberron campaign or elsewhere - so I view with some distaste a setting which implies that teams of shape-changing devils and monsters are a common sight.

Look, all I know is that you can very easily run countless fun Eberron games without ever touching anything beyond the PHB, DMG, MM, and ECS. So it sounds to me like your biggest change for running Eberron would be to not allow players to freely add whatever book they choose when making their characters. I still haven't seen anything that implies that Eberron encourages 'suprahuman antics' any more than other settings. Like the ones that have Epic level NPCs walking around (my personal definition of superhuman would probably include epic level folks). I suppose you could point to action points and have something there, but those are so incredibly easy to remove that I can't see that being an issue.

As for the setting implying that shape-changing devils and monsters are a common sight... well, I'm guessing you're talking about changelings and shifters here (since if the 'devil' bit was referring to tieflings, I'm officially a loss as to what you're talking about). As far as shape-changing... yes, changelings can use what amounts to disguise self, because they're descended from Dopplegangers. Shifters can gain some animalistic traits for a short while because they're descended from lycanthropes. I honestly don't see how this is all that different from a sorcerer who knows disguise self, alter self and polymorph, but it obviously is to you.

 

[Kesh]

The elements of Eberron I don't take to are the same ones that have been talked up in this thread:

the PCs are going to be the heroes in Eberron

You have to accept that things you think of as positives are negatives for others, perhaps including the OP.

So… you don't want the PCs to be the heroes of Eberron? Or is it, you don't want the PCs to be THE heroes of Eberron?

The latter I can understand, but the former just baffles me.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Love:

Sarlona, Reidra, the Quori and the Inspired are really, really cool. I would go so far as to call them the most interesting villainous group in a published D&D setting to date. (Runners up would be Spelljammer's Scro and the 3e Realms' Red Wizards of Thay.)

The 'ancient empire of the giants' is an excellent backstory element that I had used before, but Eberron really pushed it center stage.

The gods are off-screen (and may not even exist); alignment is decoupled from clerical spellcasting, allowing for more intrigue WITHIN religions (and thus more interesting religions), rather than having clearly delineated good and evil ones.

Like:

It has airships, but they don't look sufficiently like real world/steampunk/pulp/FF airships to bring the awesome to a 'Love' level. It's better than having no airships at all, but not as good as having ones that look right.

Warforged have a neat background and some good opportunities for roleplaying.

It doesn't use (A)D&D's normal planar structure.

Dislike:

As mentioned in the airship section, I prefer true steampunk to magepunk. While I admire the coherence with which Kieth Baker applied the D&D rules to a society, it's still the D&D magic item rules, and I dislike those. I just don't care for the visuals of the elemental-bound 'airships' and lightning rail compared to their gussied-up real-world equivalents.

Hate:

There's too much D&D in the pulp. A further extension of the steampunk vs. magepunk issue, basically. I wanted d20 Final Fantasy VI with even more pulp and noir than it already had, and got D&D with a bit of pulp and noir.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Knocking mooks off of airships, DM (as the mook) going "ah...ah...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"

Still wanna play an Eberron campaign as a player where I get to do that.

 

[JeffB]

Oh my....this discusssion certainly got out of hand over the past several days


well, I've delved a fair bit into the ECS and a little bit of Xendrik.

As I said before this setting really reminds me of Earthdawn's Barsaive, but more...err...."over the top". So far, I'm neutral. There are some things I'm reading I REALLY like, and others that are very opposite my tastes.

I don't necc see it as Fantasy Supers ala Exalted (which when it first appeared, I bought, liked and even ran a few sessions, knowing exactly what it was...Glorantha on Steroids), but I guess it boils down to: I like my D&D to more "classic" and less over the top. I feel like I'd REALLY have to change alot of things to my tastes, and then I'm not sure what the point would be in running it. While it seems to be touted as "ALL THINGS D&D WILL WORK HERE" (in Eberron), I think " ALL THINGS 3.X D&D WILL WORK HERE" is more apt. It's like taking 3.5 and cranking up the volume. I just can't see a Keep on the Borderlands, or Against the Giants or what have you in Eberron. Eberron is a fantasy version of the 1930s...with magical technology instead of industrial technology. It's more Star Wars than D&D. Not necc a bad thing, just I'd rather run a pulp game of some sort or Star Wars if thats what I'm looking for.

That said, excellent product with a TON of great ideas and themes...great for idea mining and stealing as someone else mentioned, and I'm enjoying the read despite my criticisms. Kudos to Mr. Baker and the Eberron team for a very different take on D&D.

 

[JeffB]

However......

The more I read of Xendrik....the more the setting appeals to me. I can see me taking and running with the ball as regards to a Xendrik (only) campaign. It's a quite a bit less cosmopolitan, and quite a bit more moldable to my tastes. I'm getting all manner of ideas/plot hooks, etc reading though the book..

Now..how to keep the characters from jumping on an airship back to Sharn?

I would like to ask those of you who play in Eberron currently:

What manner of campaigns are you running or playing in?

Political intrigue?

Discover and hunt down the Evil Cultists?

Murder Mysteries?

(i.e. typical "pulp" adventures)

Or are you running/playing more of a "classic" campaign of save the small town from the orcs who live in the nearby dungeon-explore the ruined wizards tower cos it's there, etc. etc. type of thing?

 

[Glyfair]

Now..how to keep the characters from jumping on an airship back to Sharn?

There isn't that much airship traffic to Xen'drik (and back). Just make sure that the regular airship route is already fully booked.

 

[blargney the second]

I can see me taking and running with the ball as regards to a Xendrik (only) campaign. It's a quite a bit less cosmopolitan, and quite a bit more moldable to my tastes. I'm getting all manner of ideas/plot hooks, etc reading though the book..

I had the exact same reaction reading that book.

My Xen'drik campaign started out with some adventures set in and around Stormreach before I started to get really keen on running Savage Tide. Then I just started converting that adventure path to be based around Xen'drik.

 

[FalcWP]

The more I read of Xendrik....the more the setting appeals to me. I can see me taking and running with the ball as regards to a Xendrik (only) campaign. It's a quite a bit less cosmopolitan, and quite a bit more moldable to my tastes. I'm getting all manner of ideas/plot hooks, etc reading though the book..

Yup. Like I said... its a continent designed for traditional dungeon crawling. You can very easily say things like:

-Your party has been sent to Xen'drik to begin scouting out locations for the next Wayfinder's Expedition
-Your party has been hired by a Professor of Antiquities at Morgrave University to recover various objects of historical importance (IE: Rob these tombs and send the stuff to me)
-Your characters are ex-soldiers looking for adventure, or folks who, in essence, dodged the draft, and have come to Xen'drik...
-Your characters are fugitives, and you all hopped a ship to Xen'drik about two steps ahead of Deneith's Sentinel Marshals, Tharashk's bounty hunters, or the Sharn Watch (or all three).

Million reasons for folks to be in Xen'drik, adventure there for a while, and not have any desire to return to Khorvaire. And you can still bring Khorvaire to them whenever you like - a professor from Morgrave hires them as escorts, or, if they were fugitives, a bounty hunter or Sentinel Marshal shows up to hunt them down.

 

[Spatula]

Now..how to keep the characters from jumping on an airship back to Sharn?

Airship travel is pretty damn expensive. It's 1440 gold to go from Stormreach to Sharn, one-way. Anyway, not much reason to go to Sharn if you're busy exploring Xen'drink, as it's illegal to unload artifacts from Xen'drik there without official sanction.

I would like to ask those of you who play in Eberron currently:

What manner of campaigns are you running or playing in?

Typical D&D campaign, more or less. I was originally looking forward to doing a dungeon-delving for-profit "archeology" type game, but 3 out of my four players made Silver Flame holy-roller characters (2 of them exalted). So I had to shift gears a bit, and the game became more about doing missions for the church and fighting evil wherever it rears its misbegotten head (which is oddly enough usually where the PCs happen to be). Started at 1st level, now 17th.